Farmland Views
Posted: August 13, 2021 Filed under: farmland, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 5 Comments
On Monday I posted a video featuring a new scenic stamp set from Penny Black. Today I’ve used the new ‘farmland’ stamp. I have two different colour schemes showing off the single stamp. In future posts I will combine it with other stamps for more detailed landscapes.
I created the background first using faded jeans, fossilized amber and vintage photo, colours I would use again in the stamping. (to see how I created the background check out Monday’s video)
Once the background was dry I put the stamp in a positioner so I could stamp one colour at a time. The farmers fields are vintage photo, crushed olive and mowed lawn. I used rustic wilderness for the trees on the horizon. A mix of stamp pads and markers made it possible to add detail to the house and trees. Spritzing and splattering over the fields gave them the texture which suggests crops.
On this second card I used a reference photo of farm fields including lavender alongside another crop. The colours are perhaps a little bold but I love trying to recreate a photograph with stamps. The background is paler this time (scattered straw and salty ocean) and the fields a mix of seedless preserves, dusty concord, rusty hinge, fossilized amber, peeled paint, rustic wilderness and vintage photo.
Once again I used markers to add final detail back into the trees and house. Can you picture the lavender fields of Provence? I have visited a lavender farm in Tasmania and you smell it before you see it!
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At Ease
Posted: August 11, 2021 Filed under: at ease, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 21 Comments
Wouldn’t you love to have a sweet beach hut like this one? To be honest I would love to be at the beach, hut or not! Instead I am enjoying a great summer with just the perfect mix of hot and warm days. The garden is growing and it is great to be outdoors. To celebrate the joys of summer I have teamed up with the Foiled Fox to host a Summer Giveaway.
If you like this beachy theme make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog. I am blogging there today but you can also catch the cute starfish card Shauna posted recently.
I kept things clean and simple for this beach hut card, it wasn’t my first go with the PB ‘at ease’ set; I completed a couple of other panels using more colours and elements in the scene. I think this simple approach is my favourite.
I stamped the hut in soft stone ink and did further stamping with distress inks. I used the salty ocean, rusty hinge and chipped sapphire distress inks to paint the hut, roof and railings as well as the fish decorations.
To add a background I placed some post-its over the hut so I could blend some ink for the sand and water. I used the torn edge of a post it to mask while blending. As I often do I popped up the panel on the same colour cardstock for a subtle ‘shadow’ frame. I added the sentiment from PB ‘enliven’ set because nothing says ‘great day’ to me like a beach themed card!
Make sure to leave a comment below telling me your favourite summer activity. I’ll put you in the draw to win a little spending spree at The Foiled Fox store!
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Sunset Over Wetlands Video
Posted: August 9, 2021 Filed under: mountain magic, Penny Black, Stamped Landscapes | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 9 Comments
Scenic stamping can be so much fun and working with the new ‘mountain magic’ set from Penny Black is proving to be delightful. Even though the set mentions mountains, in this card I am using the wide hilly stamp to represent island strips in a wetlands environment when the sun is setting and hitting both water and land.
Once again I did the sunset sky first by swiping the watercolour paper through diluted ink. It is not possible to control the result with this method but it is possible to create stunning skies. Take a look at the video below to see the whole process.
I really enjoy working with scenic stamps, especially switching the time of day or time of year with colour choices and arrangement. I also like to look through my scenic and nature stamps in order to add more elements to the scene. I will be doing that with these two simple stamps from the ‘mountain magic’ set.
Hope today’s video inspires to you to swipe a pretty sky and stamp some scenery over the top!
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Lakeside Wander
Posted: August 6, 2021 Filed under: Stamped Landscapes, wander | Tags: Fabriano Watercolour Paper, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 10 Comments
When I receive new scenic stamps from Penny Black I love creating a variety of scenes. I like to change mood and location first with colour and later with the addition of other scenic stamps. Both scenes in today’s post feature only one stamp, the new ‘wander’ cling stamp.
The stamp includes both the distant hills and the foreground with a tree. The space in between can be interpreted by the stamper to include whatever they wish. I have chosen to make it water in both my cards perhaps a river, a lake or ocean inlet.
To make both scenes I created a smooshed ink sky first. For the sunny sky and water above I smooshed salty ocean, scattered straw and mowed lawn on my glass mat then swiped the watercolour panel through the diluted ink. For the moodier panel below I smooshed faded jeans, mowed lawn and tea dye to create my background.
Once the sky dried I stamped the scenic stamp inking it with a mix of distress inkpads and markers. I add colours a bit at a time to build up dimension sometimes spritzing the stamp to move the inks and other times blending the stamped inks with a paint brush
To add reflections to the second scene I painted over the water with hmmm, water so I could drop ink into the wet area below the land and trees.
When I had finished the panel above I gave it some texture with the ‘subtle’ embossing folder so it looks like it has a canvas finish. The two cards definitely show different moods, the first being bright and sunny, the second darker but with drama in the water and sky. Which do you prefer?
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Fine Flowers watercolour video
Posted: August 3, 2021 Filed under: Darkroom Door, fine flowers vol 2, Tutorial | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, distress markers, Ranger Distress inks, Tutorial, video 6 Comments
This pretty outline flower is from the Darkroom Door set ‘fine flowers vol 2’. There are six flowers in the set and I am working my way through trying out each stamp. I began inking and stamping this zinnia/dahlia style flower and was so happy with the colour combination I stopped stamping and set myself up to film. You can see the process in the video below.
I’ve exclaimed about inks that colour separate before( and go into more detail in my online class Colour Clues ) but one of my favourites in this regard is chipped sapphire distress ink. You can see in the close up below grey blue, navy blue, pale blue and purply blue. Hardly any effort required!
All the stamps in the set have the same sketchy style and tiny dots so I did not add any further fanciness. It really was a minimal supplies card in the end even though I did not start with that plan in mind.
By the way Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door is running a challenge throughout August called #artfulaugust. If you check her instagram you can see a list of prompts. I am going to join in as often as possible as it is an open ended no pressure challenge. I have already missed one day but I am not going to dwell on that I will just dive in when I can. Kathy Racoosin is also running the Daily Marker colouring challenge during August, another low pressure, designed for fun and relaxation challenge. I hope to participate in that when I can too. Let me know if you are joining in.
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Hot Diggity
Posted: July 29, 2021 Filed under: doggone great, hot diggity dog, Peerless watercolours, Penny Black | Tags: distress markers, Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 4 Comments
I have another cute Scooter card for you today. Once again I watercoloured, this time with distress inks. I think this is my favourite set from the release; what’s not to like about a canine mariachi band?
I stamped some images with soft stone ink then painted with distress inks. Other images, including the hedgehog I stamped in brown distress inks and blended them to fill the image. I painted the background with distress inks smooshed and diluted on my glass mat.
The second card I stamped in antique linen distress inks and stamped on masking paper also so I could create the scene with cacti in the background and one musician behind another.
I painted with peerless watercolour paints and added gold details with a gel pen. I used the masks a second time so I could blend ink over the background.
These Scooter scenes were definitely a departure from my nature (and book) themed projects but as a friend said to my yesterday, ‘always good to step out of your comfort zone!’
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Vintage Style Bookshelf + Video
Posted: July 26, 2021 Filed under: bookshelf, classic motorcycles, Coliro paints, Darkroom Door, Finetec paints, Tutorial | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Finetec artist mica watercolour paint, Ranger Distress inks, Staedtler watercolour brush pens, video 13 Comments
This isn’t my first time stamping books with Darkroom Door stamps. This time I filmed the process so you could see how I made them look all old and vintagey!
The fun thing about the Darkroom Door ‘bookshelf’ stamp is its length (just under 12″) so I decided to wrap it around my cards for maximum effect. I worked on two cards at the same time giving them slightly different paint jobs and background finishing touches. Watch the video to see my process.
Because I inked the bookshelf stamp randomly the colours moved where they willed and left me with a mix of blues and browns. This second card has some extra scratches from the DD stamp of the same name.
The insides of the cards have random paint splotches here and there so I added paper inserts for a clean place to write a note. Now that I have made a wraparound card with this border stamp I might have to try it with the other DD one I own, ‘butterfly garden‘.
Thank you so much for your interest and discussion about the gel printing I shared last week. I really enjoyed the gel printing session which resulted in my last two videos and turning a few of the prints into cards and a journal page was very satisfying. Several of you mentioned wanting to get your gel plate out to try the techniques; I hope you do. I also hope you try this brown and blue vintage style on some of your own stamped projects. If you do be sure to let me know.
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Enjoy the Journey Journal page
Posted: July 23, 2021 Filed under: Art Journal, Darkroom Door, gel press, nomad, scratches, vintage car, World Map | Tags: Art Journal, Darkroom Door stamps, distress oxide inks, gel press, gel printing, Ranger archival inks, Ranger Distress inks 3 Comments
This week I have shared a gel plate video and a series of cards made with prints and leftovers from that gel printing session. If you look closely at this journal page you will see a couple more prints put to use.
The Darkroom Door set, Nomad, recently arrived in my mailbox and the main reason I chose it was the pile of suitcases. I own one old suitcase which belonged to my grandmother; it houses the ‘dress up’ collection. It is not unlike the third one in the left hand stack. The stamp set also has a single suitcase, some passport stamps and two sentiments, one included on this page.
To add even more vintage-ness to the vintage suitcases I stamped them on a grid and striped prints from the gel printing session. I used corrugated cardboard to make the patterns on the gel plate originally. I stamped the suitcases in archival inks then added extra colour with distress inks and gel pens. To create the background I smooshed blueprint sketch distress inks on a piece of acetate, spritzed water over the ink then transferred it to the masked journal pages. With the blue protected I blended a brown base, also with distress inks. Over the top of the inking I added some impressions with the DD world map and scratches background stamps. To balance the suitcases I added the vintage car and sentiment on the right hand side.
Maybe these pages came from my longing to be out and about seeing new and old places, or a longing to be poking around antique and thrift stores. The latter will probably happen before the former.
Are you longing for a trip somewhere? Are you thinking near or far?
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Fine Flowers
Posted: July 16, 2021 Filed under: Darkroom Door, fine flowers vol 2, you are everything | Tags: Darkroom Door stamps, Ranger Distress inks 8 Comments
I put some new inks and stamps to work on this card. The flower is from the Darkroom Door set, Fine Flowers vol 2 designed by my friend Godelieve (Stamping Matilda). There are six flowers in the set so this is just the beginning of the fun.
The background colour is a newish ink, speckled egg distress. I splattered masking fluid on a piece of water colour paper, smooshed speckled egg on a glass mat then added water before pressing the watercolour panel into the ink to create soft blurry blue smudges. The flowers are stamped with another new distress ink, crackling campfire. It stamps as a warm red but dilutes to more of an orange as you can see on the petals. I stamped the flowers one at a time and blended the stamped ink to fill the petals. I inked the centres with a black soot marker which blurred into the orange. To make the centres more prominent I drew dots and squiggles with a black embossing pen then embossed in black powder.
Before adding the embossed sentiment from DD ‘you are everything’ set I splattered speckled egg ink and also some water. At the risk of over dotting I also added white and black with gel pens. The stamp has its own little dots around it so adding a few more seemed fitting.
This watercolour technique is one featured in my Floral Faves online class and the colour choice is covered in my Colour Clues class. Both classes are self paced and filled with instructional videos and photo inspiration.
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Captivating Blue
Posted: June 30, 2021 Filed under: captivating, Catherine Pooler inks, Penny Black | Tags: Catherine Pooler inks, Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 8 Comments
I’ve been creating backgrounds for landscape stamping lately often by smooshing a few inks on my glass mat, diluting the ink then swiping the watercolour paper through it. The background for this floral card was done the same way and features faded jeans and kitsch flamingo distress inks plus some scattered salt for subtle patterns.
I stamped the Penny Black ‘captivating’ stamp in Catherine Pooler ‘juniper mist’ ink then blended the stamped ink to fill all the lower petals of the fuchsias. I painted the upper petals with kitsch flamingo and the leaves with CP eucalyptus ink. For the tips of the little stamen I used a white gel pen.
With all the pattern in the background I kept the sentiment simple with part of a stamp from the PB ‘carefree wishes’ set in CP juniper mist.
This stamp features in one of the lessons included in my Floral Faves online class where I teach a range of techniques for use with floral stamps. It’s a self paced class where you can access the video content at your own convenience.
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Heather Telford 